I recently took a trip to NYC and The Battery Park was top of the list of landmarks to visit. The trip was a little doomed, but it turned out to have a thing or two to teach about information.
The park sits at the southernmost point of Manhattan providing lush scenery, and a view of the Statue of Liberty. The official skinny from the National Park Service can be found [here]. Lady Lib was a gift, a reminder to everyone who enters the USA that all are welcome. Inscribed at her feet is a poem (written by Emma Lazarus) that gives the monolith voice. Lady Liberty famously says “Give me your tired, your poor, Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free.” The full poem is below:
__ Not like the brazen giant of Greek fame,
– Emma Lazarus (November 2, 1883)
With conquering limbs astride from land to land;
Here at our sea-washed, sunset gates shall stand
A mighty woman with a torch, whose flame
Is the imprisoned lightning, and her name
Mother of Exiles. From her beacon-hand
Glows world-wide welcome; her mild eyes command
The air-bridged harbor that twin cities frame.
“Keep, ancient lands, your storied pomp!” cries she
With silent lips. “Give me your tired, your poor,
Your huddled masses yearning to breathe free,
The wretched refuse of your teeming shore.
Send these, the homeless, tempest-tost to me,
I lift my lamp beside the golden door!”
Actually dang beautiful.
And so, we walked through sweltering heat for a view of the “mighty woman with a torch”, the “new Colossus” but were colossally disappointed.
Entering the crowded park we were surrounded by shouts of “MANGO! MANGO! FIVE DOLLARS.” At first, parkgoers appeared to be milling around these street vendors but as we walked further in, the crowd began to take on more of a shape. They were forming a massive line for the Liberty and Elis Island ferry. They too wanted a closer view of the statue and a chance at the perfect photo.
As it turned out, this was the only way to get a good photo because the waterfront was lined with high fences and plywood walls. Views of the statue were blocked all up and down the park with no way around except to pay for a ferry. Very disappointing. Instead of leaving the park uplifted, I left the park with grainy pictures taken through a fence and a feeling of injustice welling in my stomach.
I also had the feeling that I’d seen complaints about the barriers before on social media. Others have surely experienced the same strong feelings that I was, the injury of requiring a paid ticket to see our most beautiful national treasure. Blocked in while Lady Liberty is blocked out.
Come to think of it, I’d definitely seen other NYC visitors take to their socials to protest America’s biggest symbol for equality being paywalled. They had followed the metaphor to its clear conclusion: America’s for sale. In the land of freedom for all, you have to pay to ride.
Social media had presented it as an example of a larger national aggression and implicated that the whole business was rooted in malfeasance.
When I first heard this take, I probably rolled my eyes at the sensationalism but now I feel it in my gut. “What exactly is going on here??” I’m thinking. I’m so mad I could just walk to Wall Street (it’s pretty close after all) and occupy it.
Instead of Wall Street, however, the next stop on our list was Chinatown, and I spent the walk there talking myself out of conspiracy thinking. Cultural apathy, corrupt officials, overseas downers, whales from outer space?
But as we were eating sweet and sour pork and sipping tea, I began to talk myself out of these thoughts. Who benefits from putting up these walls? What would they even gain? Maybe Statue City Cruises get a cut but is there that much money in ferries? Aren’t they risking news getting out and visitors not vacationing in Lower Manhattan at all?
I further investigated back at home, with New York City many miles behind me. Turns out there’s a web page that addresses all this. The Battery Park City Authority is erecting the walls as flood barriers to protect the area from storm surge during violent weather. Pretty reasonable use of taxpayer’s dollars, I feel. But I’m still wondering, why two years into the construction, Battery Park still looks like a weekend music festival – tall fences, marked-up plyboard, and a weird eagle statue in the middle.
The hard thing about understanding information (or the significance of information to us) is that analysis is nuanced. We can research until we’re blue and still not know the full story. The cool thing about information is that it often doesn’t matter.
In this case “the facts” don’t entirely matter because no one is really that mad about the park being under construction. They are mad about what it represents.
The Statue of Liberty is a stand-in for freedom, equality, and refuge. From healthcare to education to immigration, blocking her from view reminds us of any number of inequalities people face every day in America. And the metaphor stands, whether or not the city of New York is involved in a conspiracy with little space whales (or whatever).
I’ve calmed down since that sweltering walk in Battery Park but, you know what, I’m still mad that America is no longer projecting Lady Liberty’s values to the world. Instead of a mighty woman wrestling lightning out of the sky to illuminate our way, we have walls.
Small Words 
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